McConnell Raises $2.4 Million in Re-Election Bid

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reported his best re-election fundraising quarter yet, bringing in $2.4 million in the first three months of this year.

The 72-year-old political veteran is locked in a race with businessman Matt Bevin, 47, a tea party favorite in Kentucky’s May Republican primary. The Hill reportedthat McConnell’s campaign has spent more than it raised, with cash on hand at the end of March falling by more than $500,000 since the start of the year to $10.4 million.

The McConnell campaign told the Lexington Herald-Leader that the heavy spending reflects an early investment in "ground-game infrastructure that will help deliver unprecedented voter contact in Kentucky," as well as $840,000 for an advertising spot that featured a cancer survivor praising the senator for securing benefits for him.

Bevin announced on Monday that he raised just $1.1 million in the first quarter, all of it from outside donations. McConnell is heavily favored in the primary, The Hill said. The Senate minority leader is expected to face a serious fight in the general election against the likely Democratic nominee, Alison Lundergan Grimes, 35, the Kentucky secretary of state.

MSNBC reported that McConnell’s approval rating in Kentucky stood at only 32 percent in one February poll, worse than President Obama’s. After three decades in office, McConnell personifies "Washington politician" when Congress is deeply unpopular and the state’s economy is struggling, MSNBC said.